The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) recent strategic move to revive and grow Nigeria’s cotton, textile and garments economic sector and to improve domestic production of cotton from about 80,000 tonnes in 2018 to 300,000 tonnes by 2020, is one of the economic news items that should not be ignored.

The policy instrument is aimed at addressing a shocking revelation that Nigeria has been spending a whopping N1.23 trillion worth of textile import bill yearly. This is clearly unacceptable.

It took sustained pressure by development experts and industry operators before President Muhammadu Buhari signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. But, the jury is still out on whether the deal, which seeks to create a continental trade bloc of 1.2 billion people, with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about $3.3 trillion, holds the key to maximising Nigeria’s economic potential.

After a 16-month demur, President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) treaty.

He did so on Monday at the opening of the 12th Extraordinary Summit of the African Union (AU) and se of the AfCFTA in Niamey, Niger Republic.

Director, National Orientation Agency (NOA) Sokoto state, Alhaji Maude Danchadi, has stressed the need to reverse the negative trend of addiction to foreign goods and poor patronage of locally produced goods. He made the call at a community awareness campaign programme tagged “Change Begins with Me: Patronise Made-in-Nigeria Products,” held at Sokoto North local government area.

He said the attitude constitutes a challenge to domestic manufacturers. This, he added, had forced some to engage in deceptive branding of locally made goods.

Nigeria accounted for $7bn of the $38.7bn inflows that were secured for the African continent at the maiden edition of the African Investment Forum, which held in South Africa in November 2018, the African Development Bank has said.

The Senior Country Director for Nigeria at AfDB, Mr Ebrima Faal, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday at a roadshow to promote the second edition of the forum coming up in South Africa in November.

He disclosed that the AfDB would be increasing its average investment in Africa from about $600m every year to about $1bn per annum in the next three years.

About MAN

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) was established in May, 1971 as a company limited by guarantee. The establishment of the Association was motivated by the desire to have a focal point of communication and consultation between industry on the one hand, and the government and general public on the other.
Hitherto, there was no institutional organ whose central focus was to give meaning to the interests, problems and aspirations of the manufacturing sector.
The establishment of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria was to provide a platform for the private sector to formulate and articulate policy suggestions that would be complementary to governments efforts at policy formulation... View More